Fossil Group is getting the hang of consumer electronics and wearable technology. The tempo of tech giants entering the smartwatch arena over the past five years was a shock, at first. Software upgrades and new models come thick and fast from the likes of Apple and Samsung, but analogue watchmakers were set up differently to launch products once per year, and sit back in the knowledge that they could keep selling for years, not become obsolete within months.
An upgrade from Fossil this month shows how much the business has transformed its thinking.
Technology is changing rapidly from Google with its ever-improving Wear OS and the same is true for the Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear chipset on which it runs.
Fossil customers will keep getting better and more feature-rich watches — sometimes with software improvements and new apps they can simply download and install — which is precisely what they expect from their gadgets.
Fossil’s next step forward comes with Gen 5 software enhancements that have been developed exclusively for the group. The headline for the upgrade is all about improving health, with watches bristling with sensors to guide people through exercise or just daily life.
An optimised activity tracker has new power-saving tricks so that a new Wellness App that heart rate, pace, distance, steps, calories and more drains the battery half as slowly.
That makes it far less likely the watch will need to be charged every night, which means it can stay on the wrist monitoring sleep, a vital part of every healthy lifestyle.
The watches also charge more quickly, taking just 50 minutes to reach 80% of their capacity, so people can juice it up for a day while enjoying their morning coffee.
If battery life does look low, the watch can be put into a power saving mode that will keep it running for 24 hours.
A brand new tracker gives advice on a person’s overall fitness by measuring their cardio fitness level, or VO2 max, one of the best indicators of overall cardiorespiratory health that is often used in tracking long-term health.
The tracker shows an estimation of VO2 max using resting heart rate and user biometrics including age, gender and weight, to display an approximated overall fitness level over time.
All of these additional features can be tracked over time on the accompanying smartphone app and on Fossil watch’s 1.5 inch AMOLED screens, where a new custom profile system and a simplified design make it easier to use.
Fossil’s newest 44mm smartwatches specs and features:
- Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 3100 Platform Powered with Wear OS by Google™ Compatible with Android 6.0+ and iOS 10.0+” Speaker
- Make and answer tethered calls Smart battery modes
- 8 GB Total Storage 1 GB RAM
- Upgraded heart rate sensor
- NFC Payments – Available in select countries Untethered GPS
- Wireless syncing
- Rapid charging (50 minutes to 80%) Magnetic charging
- Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity Microphone
- Audible alerts
- Water resistant/ Swimproof (up to 3 ATM) Altimeter
- Accelerometer Gyroscope Ambient light LED flashlight
- Music control & storage Calendar alerts
- Social watch faces + customisable dials Custom goal tracking
- Weather
- Auto-installed applications including Spotify, Noonlight, and Cardiogram
